Occurs when a huge number of possible combinations are created by increasing the number of entities which can be combined--forcing us to consider a constrained set of possibilities when we consider related problems. (Arbib)
It occurs when a small increase in the number of elements that can be combined increase the number of combinations to be computed so fast that it quickly reaches computational limits (
see bremermann's limit ). E.g., the number of possible coalitions (partitions of unlike individuals into like parts) among 3 individuals is 5, among 5 individuals it is 52, among 10 individuals it is 115,975 and among 20 individuals it is 51,724,156,235,572, etc. (
Krippendorff )
